Work Tracker User Guide
The operator's screen for running machines, jobs, and downtime
Work Tracker is the operator-facing app of OEE IntelliSuite - the screen your team uses on the floor every shift. Unlike Explorer (which is built on Apache Superset), Work Tracker is entirely our own software, so this guide walks through every screen and control.
The flow is simple: you start on the Device List, pick a machine, and the Machine Detail page gives you live control of that machine's state, job, team, employee tracking, and production counts. A separate Extended Downtimes screen lets supervisors review and explain long stoppages, and a one-switch Large Mode scales everything up for touchscreens and at-a-distance use on the shop floor.
Getting around
Every page shares the same top bar. On the left is the Work Tracker logo (it takes you home). On the right are the two main destinations - Devices and Extended Downtimes - plus three controls:
- A theme toggle (sun/moon) to switch the whole app between light and dark - handy for dim control rooms or bright floors.
- A Large Mode switch that enlarges buttons and controls for touch or distance use (covered at the end of this guide).
- A user menu for signing out, when sign-in is enabled.
The Device List
Open Devices and you land on the Device List - every machine that has been configured, shown with its name, status, current operator, current job, device type, and IP address. The status dot is color-coded to the machine's live state: Running (green); a stopped state shown with its reason - Down, Break, Planned Stop, Not Scheduled, each in its own color; Missing Reason when a stop has not been classified yet; Stale when the data feed has gone quiet; and Offline (or No IP for a machine that still needs an address configured).
Each row has up to two actions:
- Run opens the Machine Detail page for that device - this is the main thing operators do, and the rest of this guide lives here.
- Vorne Board opens that board's own web interface in a new tab, using the device's IP address. It links straight to the board hardware - useful for diagnostics or for board-native features that Work Tracker does not surface.
Vorne machines and manual work centers
Two kinds of device live in the same list. Vorne-connected machines (an IP address and a Vorne Board button) pull their state and counts from the physical XL board. Manual work centers (no IP, types like Hand Packing or Manual Rework) have no board, so the operator drives the state by hand from the Machine Detail page. The page looks and works the same for both; where they differ is what the counts mean, covered under The Machine Detail page.
The Machine Detail page
Press Run on any device to open its Machine Detail page - the primary operating screen for a single machine. It shows the live state, the current job and part, employee assignments, production counts, and all the controls for running the machine. Everything is organized into cards, top to bottom.
Job State card
The first card shows the machine's current state and lets you change it. The header reads Job State - Running or Job State - Machine Down, with a colored dot: green for running, red for an unplanned stop, and distinct colors for planned stops, changeover, break, meeting, and not-scheduled. A pink dot is special - it means a down event is active but no reason has been assigned yet.
Below the header, a colored state capsule names the process state (Running, Down, Changeover...) and the Current Reason gives the specific reason within it - for example Running Normally or Machine Breakdown. The Select Reason dropdown assigns or changes that reason; reasons are grouped by impact - Not Scheduled, Planned Stop, and Unplanned Stop (unplanned only appears while the machine is down).
Manual machines have Start / Stop buttons
Machines with automatic run detection change state on their own. On manual work centers (and any machine without auto-detection), the Job State card adds two buttons - Start Production to put the machine in a running state, and Start Down Event to signal it has stopped - so the operator drives the state directly.
When a stop has no reason
If a machine stops and no one picks a reason, Work Tracker flags it as a missing reason and locks the screen until it is resolved - this is what keeps your downtime data honest. The Job State card shows the stop in pink with Current Reason: Missing Reason, and the machine appears as Missing Reason - Action Required in the Device List. Choose the reason from the Select Reason dropdown that sits right there to clear it.
The machine is locked until the reason is set
While a reason is missing, the Edit Job Details button is disabled with the prompt "Choose a reason for current down event" - you cannot change the job or punch employees in until the stop is explained. If the machine has already started running again, the missing stop instead shows a pulsing Missing Down Reason - Action Required banner in the Job Detail card, with its own dropdown to assign the reason.
Fixing it. Once the machine is running again, the missing stop surfaces a pulsing Missing Down Reason - Action Required prompt in the Job Detail card, with its own dropdown - pick the reason and the lock clears.
Several stops at once? Clear them in bulk
If more than one stop is unexplained, pressing Edit Job Details opens a Missing Downtime Reasons popup instead - a list of every unresolved stop with its own reason dropdown, a Select All, and a progress bar. Each pick saves automatically, and you cannot close it until every stop has a reason.
Primary Employee card and Edit Job Details
The next card shows who is punched in as the primary operator - their name, employee ID, and punch-in time - or just an Edit Job Details button when no one is assigned. That button is the control center for the machine: it's where you set the employee, the job (and its part), and the team for this device.
The Edit Job Details dialog has three sections:
- Employee - punch the primary operator in by typing or scanning an employee ID (autocomplete shows matches), or Clock Out the current one.
- Job - Change Job by entering a job ID to start a new part run, or End Job to finish the current one. The job carries its part.
- Team - assign a team, set the team size, or unassign it.
At the bottom, End Shift is a single powerful action that punches out everyone (primary, secondary, and technicians), ends production and the part run, and clears the team - use it only when the shift is truly over.
Barcode scanners work here
The Punch In and Change Job fields accept Vorne barcode scanners. Instead of typing, scan an employee badge or a job barcode and the ID fills in automatically.
Job Detail card
This card is the machine's dashboard: a grid of job and machine information (job name and ID, part, team, operator, last down reason, and timing values for the job and the shift), and a Job Counts table showing Target, Total, Good, and Reject for both the current shift and the whole job.
Two action areas sit at the bottom of this card. Good Count lets an operator add good pieces directly (useful on manual work centers), and Add Rejects records scrap against the run.
What a reject does to your counts depends on the line
Choose a Reject Reason and a Count, then Add Reject. Total is always Good plus Reject. What differs between lines is whether Good is measured on its own or worked out from a count of every piece.
Where one sensor counts every piece - the usual Vorne setup - Good is that count minus the rejects. Adding a reject reclassifies a piece: 100 Good / 5 Reject (105 Total) becomes 97 Good / 8 Reject, still 105 Total.
Where the board has its own Good and Reject sensors, each is counted independently and the total grows as both are counted. The board is already counting rejects on that line, so do not also enter them here or they are counted twice.
On a manual line nothing is counted for you: both numbers are only what operators type. Adding a reject adds to Reject and leaves Good alone, so the total goes up - 100 Good / 5 Reject (105 Total) becomes 100 Good / 8 Reject (108 Total). Enter each piece once, in the form that matches what happened to it.
If you are not sure which applies to a line, ask whoever configured the board which of its inputs are counting.
Comments
The Add Comment button in the Job Detail header opens a threaded comments dialog tied to the current job. Type a message and Start New Thread; other users see it and can reply. It's how operators hand off context across shifts.
Other Employees and Technicians
At the bottom, two cards track everyone else on the machine - Other Employees (secondary operators) and Technicians - independently from the primary operator. Each lists who is punched in with their punch-in time and a Punch Out button, plus an Add Employee button.
A primary employee comes first
The Add Employee button on both cards is disabled until a primary employee is punched in - so every secondary operator and technician is always tracked alongside a lead.
Extended Downtimes
Extended Downtimes is a supervisor's view of stoppages that ran longer than a configured threshold, across every machine. It's where long downtime events get reviewed and explained - separate from the quick reason codes operators set on the Job State card. Reason codes classify what stopped the machine; explanations document why it happened and how it was resolved.
The page has three parts:
- Summary cards - Total Events, With Explanations (green), Missing Explanations (red), and Total Downtime, all for the current filter.
- Filters - narrow by device, free-text search, a start/end date range, and an explanation status (All / With / Missing); Clear Filters resets them.
- Event table - each event with its start time, device, duration, reason, operator, job, and a status that reads Missing (red) or a checkmark. Sort by any column, and expand a row to read its explanation.
Adding an explanation
The Add Explanation action on an event opens a dialog with the event's details, a dropdown to correct the downtime reason if needed, and an Explanation field (100 characters minimum). Save is enabled once the minimum is met. Explanations are independent of the Job State reason codes.
Operators do not have to come here to do it. When a stop runs past the threshold, the same prompt comes to them: opening that machine's detail screen pops up an Extended Downtime Explanation Required dialog listing each long stop with its duration, and it must be answered before they can carry on - so long stoppages get documented while the context is fresh.
Job checklists
Work Tracker can put a checklist in front of the operator at the right moment - when a job starts or ends on a machine. An admin builds the checklist and attaches it to a device with a trigger (job start or job end) and marks it required or optional. When that moment arrives, the checklist pops up automatically with its tasks and a progress bar.
Required vs optional
A required checklist must be completed before the operator can move on - the Complete button stays disabled until every task is ticked. Optional checklists can be skipped. Each task can also carry a comment, and completions are recorded against the operator and the job.
Employee-time alerts
Because Work Tracker keeps track of who is at each machine, the suite's alert engine can watch employee time as well as machine time. Alerts are configured once and delivered through any of the advertised send methods - email, SMS, Microsoft Teams, Slack, push, or the in-app banner. Two per-employee triggers are available today:
- Missing downtime in a shift. A machine stops while an employee is punched in, no reason is entered, and that employee's missing downtime exceeds a configured limit - for example, more than 60 minutes of missing downtime in one shift. The recipients you configure get an email, so someone can chase the reason while the shift is still fresh.
- Quality below a threshold. An employee's quality - rejects against what they have produced - drops below a configured threshold, so a supervisor is alerted before the pattern repeats.
Both thresholds are configurable on the alert rule, and both fire from the tracked time and counts Work Tracker records at the machine.
Where the alert is configured
Employee-time alerts ride the same alert engine as every other notification in the suite. Set the trigger, the threshold, and the recipients where alerts are configured; Work Tracker supplies the per-employee data that makes these triggers possible.
Large Mode (shop floor)
Flip the Large Mode switch in the top bar and the whole interface scales up - bigger text, bigger buttons, bigger touch targets - for use on a shop-floor touchscreen or a monitor people read from a few feet away. The information is the same; it's just sized for the floor.
Work Tracker can also be installed on a device home screen and keep operator entry available when the network drops, syncing when the connection returns (Zero Sync). That path is for spotty plant Wi-Fi, not a substitute for a healthy network.
The biggest change is how you pick reasons. Instead of a dropdown, Large Mode gives you a Choose a Reason button that opens a full-screen list of large, tappable reason tiles - and the same for rejects, via Choose a Reject Reason.
Light and dark
Work Tracker renders cleanly in both light and dark - use whichever suits your screen and lighting. The same Machine Detail page, two looks:
Tips and gotchas
Quick reference
- Machine pink and locked? A down event has no reason yet - assign it in the Job Detail card to unlock the rest of the page.
- Can't add a helper or technician? Punch in a primary employee first - the Add Employee buttons stay disabled until then.
- Need to set the job, part, or operator? It's all in Edit Job Details on the Primary Employee card.
- Rejects look like they vanished? On a line where one sensor counts every piece, a reject moves it from Good to Reject and the Total stays put. See The Machine Detail page for the other cases.
- On a touchscreen or a wall monitor? Turn on Large Mode for big buttons and full-screen reason and reject pickers.
- End of shift? End Shift in Edit Job Details clears everyone and everything in one action - use it only when the shift is really over.